Dame Zandra Rhodes is a decorated English designer whose colorful career spans more than five decades. She’s created garments for the likes of Diana, Princess of Wales, Freddie Mercury, Barbra Streisand, and more. Rhodes left her signature stamp on high fashion and interior design and turned to the world of opera in 2001 before founding the Fashion and Textile Museum in London in 2003.

My first opera might have been Mozart’s The Magic Flute, but it was so long ago now that it’s faded in my memory. I remem­ber that it was in London, and that I also saw Aida and a Handel opera at some point.

I grew up in Chatham, Kent, in England, and orig­inally I was a textile designer. When I couldn’t get people to buy my textiles, I went directly to a designer to produce my prints. I started to produce printed dresses — these were my signature pieces. Then, my work was brought to America in 1969, and I was fea­tured in Vogue magazine with Natalie Wood modeling my designs.

Later, my partner, Salah Hassanein, decided he wanted to live by the sea in San Diego, so I went with him and lived there part-time. I hadn’t been to many operas before I moved, but my partner joined San Diego Opera, so I started going regularly. It was a wonderful the opera company, and he asked me if I had ever designed for opera. I said, “No, but I’d love to!” And he commissioned me to design the cos­tumes for their 2001 The Magic Flute.

When I started designing, I watched tapes of different Magic Flute productions to see how they looked. Then, I started to work out how I could do my own version, because there’s no sense in employ­ing me if you’re going to see the same thing you could see anywhere else. As I was designing the cos­tumes, I was trying to work my way into Mozart’s mind and see where it led me. I worked with a German director on that production, and he had certain points of view, and we disagreed on some things and had negotiations.

Still, the joy you get when you’re lucky enough to be a designer is quite wonderful. I remember work­ing with a person who was playing a fairy princess. Through her cos­tume, I felt like I was able to make her feel like a fairy princess — beautiful, ethereal. It was also very magical doing the animals in that Magic Flute. Then you’ve got the singing and the orchestra going on below — it’s a magical world that I don’t think you fully experi­ence unless you’re lucky enough to design for it.

After that first opera, I went on to design the costumes and sets for San Diego Opera’s The Pearl Fish­ers, which played in about 18 towns, and Houston Grand Opera’s Aida, which also played at the English National Opera and other companies. The Pearl Fishers was a small production that was designed to travel easily in one truck, and the set design was really great fun.

I’m always amazed that the singers can wear cos­tumes and perform on stage while all the time, they’re looking at the conductor. As I watched my Aida from the wings, I saw that as the singers were diving onto the stage, they were all just looking at the conductor! It really is an ultimate experience that I’ve been lucky enough to be part of.